Lifestyle

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” Sound familiar? We’ve heard it before and yes we all dream; but how many of us put our dreams into actions. Sometimes it is not all that easy. Often life has a way of throwing a curve ball at you and you place your dreams on hold. And before you know it, it becomes non-existent.

Writing down your goals are fantastic but hiding what you transcribed in a draw is meaningless. Goals need an applied mindset and commitment, without that, chances are it will never manifest into real achievements. Honestly speaking, this is exactly where I found myself. Looking back over the past 10 years; I’ve only achieved 7 of the 10 goals I set for myself.

Are you driven bonkers by some Whatsapp group chats? Then it’s time we talk about those unspoken/unwritten rules of the Whatsapp group decorum.

There is no denying the fact that Whatsapp has transformed the way we communicate with friends and family. No matter where in the world they are, it simplifies how we converse with them. It’s like a virtual get-together.

I mean seriously who still makes phone calls and send a SMS these days! Ok my parents still do but they old school and when the phone rings I know it is them.

Whatsapp is a free communication tool that makes life easier and allows you to send messages to a group of people simultaneously to schedule social appointments, send motivational message, voice notes, videos, funny memes and to share ideas.

Besides the instant chat groups with family and friends, it also enables sharing information with school parenting groups, sports groups and work colleagues.

It’s been a while since I caught up with my girlfriends. Well more than a year to be exact. The weirdest thing is we all live in and around Cape Town. You see we all have busy schedules that is overflowing with work, kids, households etc. So, setting time aside for a meetup with friends is not always easy.

And I get it, hence what I wrote in my previous blog post about finding balance.

It’s National Women’s Day and we found ourselves stuck in traffic on our way to our two day breakaway destination. With roadworks on the N2 and a stop and go system in place; being stuck in terrible traffic for almost an hour an a half wasn’t part of the plan. So we deiced to take a detour and headed to explore the new Elgin Railway Market instead.

Not usually operating on a Thursday but due to Women’s Day there was a special market running. With the theme of the day being pink to coincide with Women’s Day celebrations; it was carried through well with decor displays at every stall and even some guests wearing pink.

Seemingly people have this perception when they look at my husband and I, that we have it all together. Well, let me just set the record straight – that is a misconception. We don’t always get the balance right and there are times when we try to stay afloat.

As full-time working parents, running a household, having a social life as well as taking on other responsibilities – it surely is challenging. We are not super parents that have the perfect equilibrium. Trying to fulfill the needs of work, family and the demands of life can come at a high price. In saying that, In 2012 I lost the balance completely so much so that I had a spate of anxiety attacks. These attacks occurred only at night and was due to an accumulation of work and life stressors. I tried to juggle part-time studies, work, family, household chores and everything else that life threw at me. So getting my shit together wasn’t always easy.

Before heading there, we anticipated it to be just another kids play area. Let’s just say, we were pleasantly surprised to see what it was all about when we arrived. The Gym and Play Combo voucher to the value of R140 affords a child two hours at The Kids Gym. This includes an hour training session using all the gym equipment and a personal trainer. And an hour free play in the separate play area.

Life has been a little crazy of late and my husband and I kept on putting time for ourselves on the back burner. Although we had the odd hour or two of alone time; a proper date night was long overdue. With so much tension in our muscles, the complimentary offer from MyMassage came just at the right time. So we ditched the usual dinner and movie date and opted for a couples massage.

This was our first couples massage and Brent was very open to the idea. More so, that he was in desperate need to de-stress. Also trying new things as a couple is a good thing and much needed for our relationship.

A few days ago three work colleagues (one male and two females) from another department questioned my age. Their age category is under 30. Never before did we converse about our personal lives. We spoke about kids and somehow I revealed the age of my girls. They assumed that I had my daughters at a young age and judging my current age to be in the range of 29 – 31.

Now you know what happens when people assume. They make an ass out of u and me.

Of course I burst out laughing and thanked them for guesstimating my age to be about 10 years younger than what I actually am.

Revealing that I was in fact a 40 something year old woman came as a shock to them.

Now if you think of a squirrel, what comes to mind is a small cute rodent with a furry tail. Leaping from one tree to another and nibbling on acorns. Besides being those cute little creatures, squirrels are savers, hoarders and stashes. They stock up for the future and they have back up plans.

Well it seems as if my family has been transformed into squirrels.

Recently we’ve been busy with renovations and also extended our garage. So last week we decided to organise our garage.

A sight for sore eyes to put it bluntly. Seeing all the stuff was overwhelming. Have we gone completely nuts? How can four people accumulate so much stuff?

Hi, my name is Noleen and I live in the beautiful city of Cape Town. I’m just an ordinary person who lives a simple life and enjoys blogging. I have two gorgeous daughters and a wife to the most amazing man. So chillax, grab a cup of coffee and stay a while.